An electric power steering apparatus (EPS) is existed as an apparatus equipped with a motor control unit. The electric power steering apparatus which provides a steering system of a vehicle with an assist torque (a steering assist torque) by means of a rotational torque of a motor, and applies a driving force of the motor which is controlled by using an electric power supplied from an inverter as the assist torque to a steering shaft or a rack shaft by means of a transmission mechanism including a reduction mechanism. In order to accurately generate the assist torque, such a conventional electric power steering apparatus performs a feedback control of a motor current. The feedback control adjusts a voltage supplied to the motor so that a difference between a steering assist command value (a current command value) and a detected motor current value becomes small, and the adjustment of the voltage supplied to the motor is generally performed by an adjustment of a duty ratio of a pulse width modulation (PWM) control.
A general configuration of the conventional electric power steering apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 1, a column shaft (a steering shaft or a handle shaft) 2 connected to a handle (a steering wheel) 1 is connected to steered wheels 8L and 8R through a reduction mechanism 3 whose reduction ratio is equal to “1/N”, universal joints 4a and 4b, a rack-and-pinion mechanism 5, and tie rods 6a and 6b, further via hub units 7a and 7b. In addition, a torque sensor 10 for detecting a steering torque Ts of the handle 1 and a steering angle sensor 14 for detecting a steering angle θh are provided in the column shaft 2 having a torsion bar, and a motor 20 for assisting a steering force of the handle 1 is connected to the column shaft 2 through the reduction mechanism 3. The electric power is supplied to a control unit (ECU) 30 for controlling the electric power steering apparatus from a battery 13, and an ignition key signal is inputted into the control unit 30 through an ignition key 11. The control unit 30 calculates a current command value of an assist command (a steering assist command) based on the steering torque Td detected by the torque sensor 10 and a vehicle speed Vs detected by a vehicle speed sensor 12, and controls a current supplied to the motor 20 for the electric power steering apparatus (EPS) by means of a voltage control command value Vref obtained by performing compensation or the like to the current command value.
A controller area network (CAN) 40 exchanging various information of the vehicle is connected to the control unit 30, and it is possible to receive the vehicle speed Vs from the CAN 40. Further, it is also possible to connect anon-CAN 41 exchanging a communication, analog/digital signals, a radio wave or the like except for the CAN 40 to the control unit 30.
The control unit 30 mainly comprises a central processing unit (CPU) (including a micro controller unit (MCU), a micro processor unit (MPU) and so on), and general functions performed by programs within the CPU are shown in FIG. 2.
The control unit 30 will be described with reference to FIG. 2. As shown in FIG. 2, the steering torque Ts detected by the torque sensor 10 and the vehicle speed Vs detected by the vehicle speed sensor 12 (or from the CAN 40) are inputted into a current command value calculating section 31 that calculates a current command value Iref1. The current command value calculating section 31 calculates the current command value Iref1 that is a control target value of a current supplied to the motor 20 based on the inputted steering torque Ts and vehicle speed Vs and by using an assist map or the like. The current command value Iref1 is inputted into a current limiting section 33 through an adding section 32A. A current command value Irefm whose maximum current is limited is inputted into a subtracting section 32B, and a deviation ΔI (=Irefm−Im) between the current command value Irefm and a motor current Im being fed-back is calculated. The deviation ΔI is inputted into a proportional-integral (PI)-control section 35 for improving a characteristic of the steering operation. The voltage control command value Vref whose characteristic is improved by the PI-control section 35 is inputted into a PWM-control section 36. Furthermore, the motor 20 is PWM-driven through an inverter 37. The motor current Im of the motor 20 is detected by a motor current detector 38 and is fed-back to the subtracting section 32B.
A compensation signal CM from a compensation signal generating section 34 is added to the adding section 32A, and a characteristic compensation of the steering system is performed by the addition of the compensation signal CM so as to improve a convergence, an inertia characteristic and so on. The compensation signal generating section 34 adds a self-aligning torque (SAT) 34-3 and an inertia 34-2 at an adding section 34-4, further adds the added result at the adding section 34-4 with a convergence 34-1 at an adding section 34-5, and then outputs the added result at the adding section 34-5 as the compensation signal CM.
In such a conventional assist control, the steering torque (the torsional torque of the torsion bar) applied by a manual input of a driver is detected by the torque sensor, and the motor current is controlled as the assist current depending on mainly the detected steering torque. However, in this method, different steering torques are generated depending on the steering angle due to the difference of the road surface state (for example, a cant of the road surface). Moreover, the different steering characteristics are obtained depending on variations of the motor output characteristic due to the long-term use.
The apparatus disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent No. 5208894 (Patent Document 1) is shown as a vehicle control unit to resolve the above problems. The apparatus of Patent Document 1 comprises a steering angle detecting means, a target setting means, and a control means to control the actual steering torque being approximate to the target value of the steering torque which is set by the target setting means, so as to apply the appropriate steering torque based on the tactile characteristic of the driver.